Washington, D.C.—An opinion piece published in Annals of Internal Medicine entitled, “Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements,” has caused a large upset in the natural products industry.

Redmond, WA—Natural products retailer VitaminLife, with a 4,000-ft2 store and an online business based here, is now selling products—including brands traditionally only sold by natural products retailers—through Walmart.com. This appears to be the first supplements retailer to have made such a partnership with Walmart. While this news may be disconcerting to some independent retailers, just how such eCommerce marketplaces are intersecting with the natural products industry is complicated.

After a tour through the Naturex facility in South Hackensack, NJ, WholeFoods editor/associate publisher Kaylynn Chiarello-Ebner spoke to "Medicine Hunter" Chris Kilham about the company and its products, including green coffee bean extract.

A recent statistic unveiled by Discovery Research Group highlights the need for a growing number of consumers to be vigilant about their omega-3 supplement preferences. This investigation into consumer behavior around omega-3 intake revealed that as many as 40% of consumers are looking for non-fish oil sources to meet their current supplement needs (1).

Frustrated with a lack of progress from negotiators, activists groups made a dramatic exit just before the close of this year’s world climate change meetings by walking out en masse from Warsaw’s National Stadium, where the meetings were held. The 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held November 11–22, was meant to firm up the timeline for a legally binding 2015 agreement on climate change goals, but observers were dismayed by continued fighting over details among the delegates.